7 APRIL 1838, Page 20

"MORAL PAINTINGS" AT EXETER HALL.

" Two grand Moral Paintings," as the advertisements run, " The Temptation of Adam and Eve," and " The Expulsion from Para- dise," painted by DUBUFE, an artist of the French school, and a pet pupil of DAVID, are now open at Exeter Hall, after having en- raptured the American public. Why they should be termed " mo. ral" par excellence, we cannot conceive ; unless, indeed, it was feared that a representation of our First Parents in a state of nature might be deemed too much for the prudish among the p trons of Exeter Hall. The subject s theological, the sentiment tliet

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trical, the style emblematical, and the beauty physical...." mond" quill. ties seem out of the question. The pictures consist of two groups of naked figures, gracefully de signed, well drawn, and carefully painted ; and the scenic accessories. leave no doubt as to the persons intended. In the " Temptation'. Adam Is seated on a verdant ottoman of nature's own constructio; with a sleeping lion for a squab to lean against ; and Eve, reclining by his side, prompted by the serpent, furtively slips the apple into his hand, looking up into his face with.insinuating

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an insinua tingsmile; Adam the while appearing quite unconscious of what she s doing. The hairand beard of our great progenitor indicate a laudable attention to the toilet, as do the luxuriant tresses of the 'universal mother. In the " Expulsion," the guilty pair are in attitudes of melodramatic deepen. tion : the lion is walking off, very surly at being disturbed in his nap ; and the serpent, metamorphozed into to Satan, seems cleaving it tree in twain, as if to feed the bonfire in which he is half enveloped.